The Sioux Falls Canaries dropped the final game of their three-game weekend series against the Fargo-Moorhead Redhawks on Sunday afternoon, falling by the final score of 12-5 at Newman Outdoor Field.

The Canaries got out to a hot start offensively, scoring two runs in the top of the 2nd inning against Redhawks starting pitcher Will Solomon. The Left-hander gave up an additional run in the top of the 3rd inning to give the Canaries an early 3-0 lead, but that would short lived.

Starting pitcher Ray Hanson also had a good start to his afternoon, retiring six of seven batters over the first two innings, but saw the wheels come off in the bottom of third. The right-hander gave up six runs on four hits, including a pair of two-out, two-run home runs to Josh Mazzola and Dustin Gieger in the bottom of the 3rd to give the Redhawks a 6-3 lead.

The Birds got a leadoff single from Cameron Monger in the top of the 4th inning before B.J. Guinn sent a two-run homer over the wall in left to make it a one-run game. Hanson (0-7, 7.69 ERA) gave up his third homer of the afternoon in the bottom of the 4th inning on a lead-off blast from Ryan Wagner to extend the Redhawks lead to 7-5. Fargo-Moorhead added two more runs in the bottom of the 5th inning to make it a 9-7 lead Before Hanson left the game.

Relief pitcher Josh Ferrell also had a tough day on the mound for the Canaries. Ferrell allowed the first five Redhawks batters to reach in the bottom of the 6th, allowing three more runs to score.

Pitching coach Demetrius Banks made his first relief appearance of the season in the bottom of the 7th inning. The veteran left-hander put together a 1-2-3 inning in the top of the inning, picking up a strikeout to end the inning. Banks came back out to work the 8th inning, striking out Mazolla and Kang before giving up a two-out walk to Dustin Geiger. The Birds took banks out of the game with two outs in the 8th, with Billy Waltrip getting the final out, but Banks was impressive in his first appearance of the season.

With the loss on Sunday afternoon, the Birds drop the weekend series 2-1 and split the 2016 season series against the Fargo-Moorhead Redhawks.

The Canaries have an off-day on Monday, but return to Sioux Falls Stadium on Tuesday, August 30th to battle the Gary-Southshore Railcats in the final homestand of the 2016 season. Contact the Canaries ticket office for information regarding single game or season ticket options by calling 605-336-6060 or visit the website at www.sfcanaries.com for more information.